5 Freaky French Folklore Creatures

The amount of French folklore creatures are surprisingly scarce but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any around. Here are 5 creatures I managed to find some information and details on:

5. Tarasque

In various literature the creature is described in many different ways. The best and clearest description there is says that the Tarasque was a sort of dragon, with a lion’s head, six short legs like a bear’s, an ox-like body covered with a turtle shell, and a scaly tail that ended in a scorpion’s sting.

Quite a peculiar looking creature I must say.

It was said that the Tarasque lived near a city in south(southwest) France at the beginning of the 1st century. Tamed by Saint Martha, the aggressive creature turned docile and was brought back with her to town. But the people were scared of the creature, scared of the unknown.

So that very night, the townspeople attacked the creature. Surprisingly for them, the creature did not fight back nor tried to runaway. Finally, coming to their senses, guilt overwhelmed them when St Martha defended the dead creature and preaching to them of their wrongdoings.

As a form of apology and reminder the townspeople changed the name of the town to Tarascon in honour of the Tarasque .